Nature's therapy in Namadgi

Once again, see how you can barely tell the difference between the image in the recipe, and my stunning attempt, as I have #nailedit.

Sweet Potato and Broccoli Frittata

Lunch at a cafe with friends is always a fun occasion - look at them both pretending to be healthy; hiding their true meal under a salad.

The Luminosity and The Obscura

Desperately missing my little cat, I needed some grief relief, so Him Outdoors took me Brindabella bagging on a glorious day. We began by hiking to the summit of Mount Aggie (1,421 m / 4,662 ft). The walk through snow gum woodlands is rewarded with magnificent views to Kosciuszko National Park. 

Mount Franklin (1,646 m / 5,400 ft)was once the centre for a ski resort. In 1938 a ski chalet was constructed to service the Canberra Alpine Club. Ski runs were cleared and ski tows were improvised. Work parties armed with axes and crosscut saws chopped and sawed amongst the snow gums on the densely timbered mountain. The trees were then stacked into piles and burned. Information panels tell us that "the men were asked to do the heavier work, but the ladies laboured as mightily as the men."

Scattered among the stunning trees are the rusting remains of ski tows. More interpretive signage explains, "While ski tows are taken for granted by downhill skiers today, the development of tows at Mt Franklin enabled club members to enjoy many more runs in a day. Previously skiers got back up the slope through their own efforts. In 1957 Jim Webb's ingenious adaptation of a Harley Davidson motorbike heralded a new era of skiing. A ski tow was now in operation at the Brindabellas."

The views from the top are superb, and the alpine flora is exquisite.

Due to the effects of climate change, there are no longer opportunities for downhill skiing in this area, although conditions do still occasionally allow for cross-country skiing and ski touring. Meteorological predictions suggest this is not isolated to the ACT, and that the future is bleak for skiing in Australia.

One particularly innovative ski tow was constructed from an Austin A40 engine. In 1965 this vehicle had been involved in a robbery and the ensuing police chase resulted in the car rolling. Minus its entire roof and windows, it now had potential as a ski tow. With the rope running round one of the back wheels and with the pulley wheel attached to the lift poles, the A40 commenced operation. However, due to problems of gearing and power, together with vandalism, it soon fell into disuse.

As the panels explain, "Today nature is slowly reclaiming the Slalom Run. Through the process of ecological succession, pioneer species such as mountain wattles are re-vegetating the disturbed sub-alpine woodland. In time, the slow-growing snow gums will emerge from the protection of the short-lived mountain wattles."

I love the spectacular colouring and marking of the snow gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora to give them their correct name). They grow in open woodlands at altituues of 1,300 - 1,8000 m (4,265 - 5,906 ft) in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, and the ACT, where they form the altitudinal limit of the tree line. They are the most cold-tolerant species of eucalyptus and can survive temperatures as low as -23°C (−9 °F) and year-round frosts.

The term pauciflora means few flowers and is a misnomer, as the trees are covered in a mass of white flowers in spring and summer. The evergreen trees retain their leaves throughout the year and in winter they adapt to the weight of the snow by progressively bending their branches so that the outermost branches extend vertically down and snow is shed from the leaves.  

After the snow disappeared the Canberra Alpine Ski Chalet was preserved as a museum before being destroyed in the 2003 Canberra bushfires. There is now a Mount Franklin Visitor Shelter next to the site of the old chalet. It was designed and constructed in 2008 by students from the School of Architecture at the University of South Australia. 

There is a selection of photographs and descriptions of the chalet and its occupants - it sounds like some fun nights were had in the cramped facilities as everyone entertained each other after a day's activities in the snow. It was a two-storey weatherboard building with a gable iron roof, large kitchen and living area downstairs, and bunk rooms upstairs (with accommodation for 30). The exterior was originally coated with green-tinted linseed oil, and later with green paint. The main entrance was a stable door; if snow piled up against the bottom, the upper half could still be opened. 

The hut was upgraded in the 1950s with internal lining of Baltic pine, and a kitchen stove that came from the Prime Minister's lodge in 1957 when Dame Patti Menzies renovated the kitchen. The bunkroom partitions were originally hessian, replaced by wood in 1956 - the partitions did not extend to the floor or ceiling so warm air from the stove flues could circulate.  

As well as displaying artefacts from the chalet, the shelter is also a facility for use in fire fighting and search and rescue activities. There is no public access to the interior of the shelter, but there are covered picnic tables outside. In the words of the architects;

'The Visitor's Shelter responds to the harsh alpine climate by orienting its "back" to the prevailing winds and opening its "front" to sun and light. The edge of the roof is turned up towards the peak of the mountain as a gesture to the former ski slopes. The use of metallic and galvanised cladding materials makes reference to the stark silvery trunks of the snow gums, to ice and snow. By contrast the interior expresses the protective warmth of timber.'

In 1909 the Cotter River was selected to provide water for the nation's capital city. Water catchment restrictions were soon in place to protect the Cotter River from pollution. While the Franklin Chalet was to be located inside the ACT, the toilets were located across the border in NSW so as not to pollute Canberra's water supply - leading some wags to comment that Canberrans were only doing what came naturally to them and shitting on NSW.

Mt Ginini is at an altitude of 1,762 metres (5,781 ft), and there is a road to the very top. It has a rather ugly (but doubtless essential) communications transceiver for Airservices Australia perched on top of it and is surrounded by security fences and barbed wire, but the views in the other direction are pretty.

We proceeded to Bendora Hut and Bendora Arboretum. I suggest if trees are not your thing; you look away now.

Bendora Hut

Inside Bendora Hut

The Bendora Arboretum was primarily established between 1940 and 1958. It was one of eight high altitude sites (above 1,000 / 3,280 ft) out of 30 arboreta established in the ACT by the Commonwealth Forestry Bureau. The arboreta were planted to test the suitability of introduced species to the Canberra landscape and included a number of species with plantation potential. By 1974 the arboreta of the ACT confirmed that Pinus radiata was the preferred species for commercial wood production across the region. 

The arboretum currently encompasses five hectares containing 41 species of trees within 55 plots. It is the only arboretum in the Brindabella range that survived the bushfires of 2003. The most mature trees are over 75 years old and the tallest - the Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) - has grown to more than 40 m / 130 ft in height. Recent plantings of coastal redwood and Clanwilliam cyprus by the Friends of ACT Trees continue the scientific and living heritage legacy of the Bendora Arboretum. 

The European larch (Larix decidua) is one of very few deciduous conifers. It is very cold-tolerant, able to survive winter temperatures down to at least -50°C (−58 °F) and grows to the tree-line at 2,400 m (7,874 ft) in Europe, but only in well-drained soil. It is one of the fastest growing conifers and is economically important in Europe. Its timber is relatively hard, resinous, and naturally durable. It is widely used for constructions and in the building industry. Also recognised for its beauty, it is cultivated as an ornamental tree for planting in gardens and parks, and is a popular bonsai species - although it looked a bit big to me.

Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata) is one of the most widely-grown exotic timber species in the world with large areas of plantations in Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Spain. It has a versatile timber widely used for the full range of structural and decorative uses and can be pulped for paper. 

The European small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata) is not seen here to its best advantage, but is actually planted for ornamental purposes. It is native to Europe, where it is often called linden, and is 'quite unrelated' to the citrus lime. The wood is white or pale yellow and is soft and well suited to wood carving, turnery and fine joinery. It is used for the sounding boards of pianos and other musical instruments. It features in some fine carvings in St Paul's Cathedral and Windsor Castle, and a coppice woodland of this species in Gloucestershire is estimated to be 2,000 years old. In Slavic mythology the lime was a sacred tree, and today it is a national emblem of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is one of the most important timber trees in the world. It was named after David Douglas (1799-01834), a Scottish botanist who first introduced the tree into cultivation. It occurs on the West coast of Canada and the USA and extends into Mexico. Some North American trees are over 100 m (328 ft) tall, and the flag pole at Regatta Point near Lake Burley Griffin is a species of this trunk from British Columbia, donated by the Canadian government. 

Lawson cypress is a graceful tree planted for its ornamental value and versatile wood. It is light, yet has great strength and is rot resistant. Its fine grain, strength and tonal quality make it suitable for guitar soundboards. In Japan it is highly valued for making coffins and for shrines and temples. The timber is also known for its highly fragrant ginger aroma - now that's what I call a harmonious death.

The Western white pine (Pinus monticola) is the state tree of Idaho and is sometimes known as the Idaho pine. The wood is easily worked with carpenters' tools and is ideally suited for window and door frames, panelling, shelving, and some structural applications. The branches are in regular whorls, which are produced at the rate of one a year. 

Western Yellow Pine (Pinus ponderosa) are found from British Columbia southward and eastward through the Western USA and into Mexico. This pine is one of the most important timber species in the Western USA and is popularly used for building construction. 

During the age of sailing ships tall Eastern white pines (Pinus strobus) were favoured for masts by the British Royal Navy. Selected trees were known as 'mast pines'. The original masts were single trees, but later they were laminated to better withstand cannonballs. How did they get that through the laminator, I wonder?

The Coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is the tallest tree in the world. The trees regenerate from epicormic buds on the trunk in response to fire (just like eucalypts.) This species grows on the coast of Northern California and Southern Oregon below 900 m (approx 3,000 ft) altitude. The genus is reputedly named after Sequoyah, a Cherokee Native American born in Tennessee ca 1776.

Walking back out along the track, we encountered more of the native varieties which grow naturally, such as the delightfully inscribed scribby gum.

A few days later, my friend Bad Fairy came over from New Zealand for a work trip. It was wonderful to see her; we went out for beers and a Turkish meal and caught up on all the latest dispatches. 

Bad Fairy and me